This is the scenario playing out in Washington, D.C. schools, from the most affluent to the poorest communities. Democratic Mayor Muriel E. Bowser's $21 billion budget request calls for a 12% increase in the funding formula that largely determines how schools are funded, with the proposal adding that traditional public An additional $181 million will be injected into schools.
But halting cuts alone is not enough. Officials say a combination of factors, including flat city revenues, rising teacher pay, rising costs and the expiration of millions of dollars in one-time federal pandemic aid, have led to the funding now being reduced. It is said that this means that it will not grow as much. past.
The D.C. Council still needs to approve a budget, but school leaders are preparing to cut 200 full-time equivalent school-based jobs, from classroom teachers to janitors.Most of the losses will be on the teachers. And budget data shows the cuts will be particularly large in some of D.C.'s most underserved areas. The cuts represent just 2% of the school workforce, but come as families argue their children need more support as they recover from the pandemic.
Mr Donaldson warned class sizes could increase next school year, meaning teachers will have less time to plan lessons. That could make it difficult to maintain student academic progress, he said. In addition to losing six teachers, Deal said he is also losing behavior counselors hired to help students sort out new habits they started showing up after virtual learning, such as wandering the hallways instead of going to class. He said there was.
“We founded the school for success and stability, understanding what it takes to make things successful. We created a school environment where children can learn, grow and feel safe. place and make all of that happen,” Donaldson said. “It's like it's been pulled out from under us.”
The proposed cuts would affect schools in nearly every area of the city. Schools in District 3, which includes Deal, will lose 64 full-time positions next year, according to the data. Ward 4, which has the highest traditional public school enrollment in the city, will lose 47 students. The only areas in the city that are expected to see a net increase are the 2nd and 5th wards. Most schools will lose at least one of her positions.
It is unclear how many of these will result in losses. This includes current vacancies. “That's something we're reconciling with right now,” said Louis D. Ferebee, the school system's chancellor.
The 8th District, which includes some of D.C.'s most under-resourced neighborhoods, could lose the most jobs, according to a review of the proposed budget. According to projections, enrollment in traditional public schools in the district is expected to decline by 634 students between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years, and after an upward trend, it will decline by 324 students next year. has been done. Almost all schools in the district will eliminate positions next year, resulting in a net loss of 99 positions.
Ward 8 resident Tyesha Andrews said she hopes many children, including her own, will attend schools in other parts of the city. “The majority of students in the city are from Wards 7 and 8 and go to other wards to get a better education,” Andrews said. “Ward 8 is the last ward to deserve budget cuts.”
Andrews' eldest son, a high school student, is interested in technology, but there are no traditional public schools in his neighborhood that specialize in technology. And she refuses to send her youngest son to a local school because of the violence in her neighborhood.she said More investment in specialized programs and safety could encourage more families to stay. (Farby said the city continues to invest in microtransit options for students and Safe Passages, a program that places adults in high-traffic areas around schools to watch for violence.) .)
There are several factors that determine how much money a school receives. Funding is allocated to schools based on the number of students attending, so an increase in enrollment usually means an increase in funding.
School budgets are also determined by programming, such as the number of children requiring special education services. Schools will also receive additional funding for children who are learning English and students who are “at risk” (in a broad sense). The city uses it to describe children who are homeless or in foster care, children living in low-income homes, and high school students who have been banned from activities for at least a year.
The city also provided some schools with “stabilization funds” to help maintain staffing and other resources. Registration varies. Schools received $65 million between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, but that funding will decrease to $11 million in next year's budget as the one-time funding dries up.
“Obviously we're going to see some reductions because we don't have the one-time funding that we need to hold school at the same level as last year,” Ferebee said. “If enrollment were declining and staff numbers remained the same, the current cliff would be even steeper. There are more and more of these.”
Meanwhile, schools quickly hired more staff to administer coronavirus tests and offer small-group classes for students, overwhelmed by temporary federal pandemic aid. Ferebee said the number of full-time job openings districtwide has increased by 18% since the pandemic. Meanwhile, enrollment increased by about 3% from the 2020-21 academic year. DCPS received $304 million in federal pandemic aid.
“But we knew at that point that we couldn't sustain that level of increase forever,” Ferebee said of the new hires. “The challenge at the moment is that we are at a stage where we are phasing out the last element of investment.”
School districts across the country have taken similar approaches, said Marguerite Rosa, director of the Edunomics Lab, an education think tank at Georgetown University. Schools in 47 states across the country increased their staffing levels by nearly 5% between the 2016-17 and 2022-23 school years, according to the data. In contrast, enrollment declined by almost 2% during this period.
In some cases, new employees were told their jobs were temporary, Roza said. Many district leaders were hoping the state Legislature or the federal government would inject more money so they wouldn't have to lay off staff. Currently, schools are facing layoffs, program eliminations, and even school closures.
In Washington, D.C., the proposed cuts have been criticized by education advocates, who say schools need more staff, not fewer. The plan would also set up a new showdown between the mayor and chancellor and the D.C. Council, which passed legislation in 2022 aimed at ensuring schools have at least the same amount of funding as the previous year. This is the second year in a row that Bowser has ignored this law.
Ferebee said the budget model the district continues to use is more fair. He pointed to an Edunomics analysis that found the current formula was better at directing funds to students with the highest needs than the previous model the district used in 2019.
But D.C. Council President Phil Mendelson (D) said the analysis did not take into account the funding model set out in the council's 2022 law. He said he would propose more funding to bring the school budget into compliance as it did last year.
Meanwhile, teachers are already looking for jobs elsewhere.
Ikeshia Butler, a special education teacher at Sousa Middle School in Southeast Washington, said some of her colleagues have started attending job fairs. The school expects a slight increase in enrollment, and while the district's projections show four positions will be eliminated, Butler said there could be more positions. Stated.
Butler worries about how the loss will affect the school's culture, where teachers go out of their way to check on families when students are late. In a recent school climate survey, two-thirds of students reported feeling loved and appreciated at school, and more students than ever at Sousa schools, Butler said. Ta.
“We're going to do what we have to do for our students. We're going to make it work because we have a genuine love for our students,” Butler said. However, “it would really hurt if the sixth and seventh graders came back next year and didn't have the same faces that they love so much.”
John D. Harden contributed to this report.
